Nestled in
among the row houses, Delis, and cleaners on Willow Street in New
Haven is this little gem. Long a secret of the ever-present Yale
crowd, and neighborhood people, this place is easy to miss, and
hard to forget. This place is small and friendly, with a dining
area hardly large enough for 8 or 9 tables, with the kitchen
looking directly out into the dining area. The walls are covered
in warm wood paneling and old turn of the century soft drink
advertisements. The wait staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and
you can always get a wave from the cooks, too!

Archie's
wisely bases it's menu on what it does best. This place has
mastered the concept of Pub food. It wisely avoided both of the
recent trends of diluting it's menu with excessive variety, as
well as trying to draw in the Yuppie crowd with pretentious menu
items.

This place
does Food! Basic and powerful, everything compliments each other,
and goes down well with a pitcher of beer. Famous (and rightly
so) for it's Buffalo style wings, they also serve a manly plate
of Nachos Grande, huge, spicy, and loaded with meat, cheese,
guacamole, and other real stick to your ribs items. Make no
mistake, this is a heart attack on a plate, but damn fine eating!
In addition to the Buffalo wings they also serve Teriyaki style
wings that get consistent raves from my 10 year old. Add rich and
meaty ribs, hearty chili, and a nice variety of large and well
executed burgers, and this place makes a real satisfying event
out of stopping for a bite.

Note:
Archie's has recently purchased a large restaurant in Milford
near the Green. This place is HUGE with outside dining in good
weather. Bigger is not better. The food there is OK, but not up
to the same level of quality as the little original place. Take
my advice, though and try to avoid the Milford place on Friday
nights, and during Happy hours, the whole huge place gets
absolutely packed, and the food is not improved by quantity
production.